2007 Editor’s Choice Award nominees
So as the year starts to wind down we thought it might be a good time to start the process of determining the winner of the 2007 Tabletop Gaming News Editor’s Choice award. This year it was difficult to come up with a list of nominees. This process started in early November with members of the TGN writing staff (Zac Belado, Grant Hill and Bob Barnetson) going over all of the new releases from the last twelve months to create a list of products that we thought were worthy nominees. This list consists of 150 different miniatures, games and accessories. We then started working on trimming this list down to 70 different products and then down to the 24 products that you see here. We nominated four products in each category in order to make sure that we had a list of nominees from across the entire range of releases from the last twelve months.
You may already have seen some of these products listed in our 2007 retrospective, but there are also a few releases in this list that are unique. Unlike last year where we did Editor’s Choice Awards in a variety of categories we are only doing a single award this year. There is no real reason for this other than the current demands on my time, so if you were looking for the more extensive writeups we did last year you have my apologies and we hope to return to this next year.
My thanks to Grant and Bob for all of their work in helping to assemble this list (twice!) and all the manufacturers that sent us photos. Unfortunately there wasn’t time to get the galleries ready for the awards. Despite being listed in categories we will be creating a top ten list from amongst all of the nominees and posting that list in a few days. After that, we will pick a winner.
Feel free to post your own comments about the nominees and if we missed something feel free to tell us what is was and why we should have included it.
Update: the 2007 Editor’s Choice Award winner has been announced.
Pulp/Horror miniatures
Pulp gaming came on strong this year lead by some exceptional miniature releases as well as a raft of new rules and expansions for the pulp gamer. Pulp style sci-fi gaming got a boost not only with a new ruleset from Rattrap Productions but also by great new releases from new companies Hydra Miniatures and Killer B games.
- Killer-B Games Mecha-Men
- Take On You Tannhäuser base set figures
- Darkson Designs German Emaciated Trooper
- Pulp Figures’ Cowled Cultists
Sci-fi miniatures
40K made a strong return to a lot of gamers hearts not only with the release of 40K Apocalypse but also with the release of the Imperial Guard Baneblade kit. Spanish manufacturer Corvis Belli continued to release great sculpts for Infinity and Forge World maintained their same great standards for 40K minis across multiple scale.
- Hydra Miniatures Robot Legionnaire-standing
- Games Workshop Imperial Baneblade
- Forge World Aeronautica Imperialis Ork Bommer
- Infinity Combined Army Drones
Game or expansion
It was a banner year for game and expansion releases this year. Alpha Forge Games, Aberrant Games, Privateer Press and Catalyst Game Labs all released great new games or add-ons for our existing favourites. If you didn’t have a favourite game prior to this year, odds are that you probably do now.
- Catalyst Game Labs Classic Battletech Introductory Set
- Rackham AT-43
- Privateer Press Hordes: Evolution
- Fantasy Flight Games Tide of Iron
Historical miniatures
There is always a wealth of great historical releases every year in multiple scales and 2007 was no different. This year also saw new historical figures from eBob, a continuing series of great WWII releases from Bolt Action, Artizan and smaller manufacturers like Chieftain and great historical figures in smaller scales like Splintered Light’s new Romano British miniatures.
- eBob Miniatures King Edward I (mounted)
- John Jenkins Designs The 47th Regiment of Foot
- Bolt Action Miniatures Sdkfz 251/7 Pioneerwagen
- Splintered Light Miniatures Romano-British Infantry Command
Terrain miniatures
Every good table needs good terrain and this year there were great new releases for almost every genre. JR Miniatures released a new range of 28mm scale sci-fi terrain, Antenociti’s Workshop started releasing new 15mm scale WWII terrain and German manufacturer Ziterdes came out with an excellent Undead Pirate terrain piece. This was also a tough category to pick because of the high standards of companies like Kerr & King, Timecast, old Crow and others.
- ZUZZY Terra-Flex table-top terrain mats
- JR Miniatures 28mm scale Reactor Building Ruins
- Antenociti’s Workshop Blockhouse H677 for 88mm PAK 43/41
- Ziterdes Dark Revenge terrain
Fantasy miniatures
This was perhaps the most difficult category to pick nominees in. Avatars of War, Hasslefree, Asmodee, Dragonblood Miniatures, Privateer Press, Tales of War and many other all produced exceptional figures this year. Fantasy gamers suffered from an overabundance of options as most companies came out with exceptional new sculpts this year.